Drinking Problems
by purebristles
Summary: #BB# Booth's revelation about his past brings Brennan into his inner circle of confidantes. What will they do with this new level of friendship?


Disclaimer: These characters belong to Kathy Reichs, Hart Hanson, and Fox.  
Spoilers/Timeline: Set after 409, The Con Man In The Meth Lab.

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**Chapter 1: Bad Medicine**

"My dad drank."

Could a heart simultaneously sink and soar? Because with those three words, Booth had managed to create a tumult of emotions in her: joy, because he had deigned to share a painful piece of his past with her; pride, because he transcended his alpha-male stereotype to share something so personal and vulnerable with her; disgust, because of what his dad did to both him and Jared; and relief, because she felt forgiven for judging him so quickly, and with poor evidence.

"I know."

He looked up quizzically at her, then sighed and chewed at his cake.

"Cam never could keep her nose out of trouble."

"She was only trying to help. So was Sweets."

"Sweets too?" He grimaced. "Can't a man have any secrets? I feel like I've lost my manly allure."

"Then you shouldn't have gone around boasting about the Rico case, then telling everyone to 'forget about it' when the State Police suddenly came and took all the credit for the bust." Brennan arched an eyebrow at him.

Booth slumped back into the bus stop seat.

"Yeah, you're right."

They sat a while in silence, slowly savouring the chocolate blackforest cake, and watching people walk by the opposite side of the road.

"Booth?"

"Hmmm?"

"I'm sorry."

He tilted his head over and regarded her sideways. He shrugged.

"It's okay. You didn't know, and I didn't want to tell you."

"Yeah, but I was so wrong about you. I just couldn't believe that... that I could think that about you, and I'm just... really angry and ashamed at myself for even just considering that you were... that you didn't..." She hadn't intended for the apology to come out the way it did, and now that it had tumbled out, she was surprised to find herself close to hot, angry tears.

She felt one arm wrap around her shoulder, and Booth leaning over her.

"Hey, hey, shh, it's really okay. You really didn't know, and well, Jared's a Booth, I'm sure he you know, swayed you over with a poor variation of the Booth smile." She felt, rather than saw his rendition of the smile, and couldn't help but smile and blink away her tears at that.

She sniffed the rest of it away, and stared down at the empty paper plate. "It's not really okay, and I'm sorry that I doubted you. I really hope to make it up to you sometime." She glanced up at him, to see him half-smile at her.

"You're forgiven, Bones." He leaned back in the seat and folded his arms again, and she saw the half-smile turn into something resembling a smirk.

"Uh-oh, that look on your face does NOT look promising."

"What? It's the best Booth charm smile in the world!" he turned to give her his practiced wink and smile, and she shoved her shoulder into him.

"That's not the best Booth smile in the world, far from it."

She stood up from the bench, dumped the paper plate and fork in the trash, and stretched as best she could with the sling, feeling slightly wrung out from the mini emotional roller-coaster that she'd been through the past two days.

"What?" Booth was flabbergasted. "I thought you were feeling... I don't know, contrite or something. That went away pretty fast," he grumbled and re-folded his arms tighter into his body.

She smiled.

'Men and their sulks,' she thought.

"You and Jared are not the only Booth boys I'm acquainted with, you know," she teased as she held out her good hand to him. She grinned wider as he got it. "I'll have you know your son's pretty cute."

Booth grinned, took her hand and swung himself up, his weight half-yanking her slight build towards his body.

"You into cradle-robbing now, Dr. Brennan?" he smacked her lower back lightly and gently pushed her back into the warmth of the pub.

"And don't think I don't know you're cheating by mentioning my beautiful son; I know exactly what you're doing."

The door closed behind them and they made their way over to their table.

"What am I doing?" she asked.

He snagged another piece of cake and grinned at her.

"Stealing the pooty!"

She frowned. "I don't know what that means."

They both missed the way that Angela's eyebrows went through her bangs and she choked on her drink.

* * *

The rest of the night went on without much incident. He didn't really want or need a party, and it really sucked not to be in Hawaii (since he wouldn't be getting that Christmas bonus thanks to the Rico bust), but it was nice to be around people and just hang out.

He snorted into his drink. Yeah, like if there wasn't this party to attend, he would be living it up someplace else? Right. He sighed. He knew he'd probably be moping at home, replaying the Rico press conference over and over again on TV, and wondering what went wrong.

He couldn't really feel angry at Jared. Jared was just being... Jared. It had always been this way: Jared getting into one scrape or another, and big brother Seely having to rescue him. Junior high had been a riot of fun, between the jokes about his name ("Silly Booth! Silly Booth!" they had taunted during recess), his brother's playground fights, and his dad's volatile temper when they were younger. He didn't know how many teachers he had fooled with the old "I fell down the stairs" excuse, but child protective services had never been called. He didn't really blame them; Philadelphia had bigger problems than just domestic abuse.

He turned around and watched his squints party in the only way they knew how. Cam was polishing off the cake (how she managed to eat and still remain so slim was a mystery he never solved in all the years that they'd known each other), Hodgins was gazing wistfully at Angela as she and Sweets thumb-wrestled for the last chocolate coin that garnished the cake (he had refused the honour.) Clark was nowhere to be found, Jared had buggered off with the blonde about an hour ago, and Bones...

His eyes narrowed. Where on earth was she?

Temperance stepped out of the restroom just as his eyes had completed a sweep of the whole bar. Well, more like tripped out of the restroom. His brows furrowed deeper as she dug through her purse, took out her cell phone, then proceeded to drop it - as well as the rest of the contents of her purse - on the floor.

"Here, let me help you." He bent over and snagged her lipstick and eyeliner, which had rolled to his feet.

"Yeah, okay." Her voice sounded muffled, and she sounded strange.

He stood up and handed her stuff to her.

"Hey, are you okay? You getting sleepy? You should be resting, you kind of got shot today."

"Can you call a cab for me?" she asked suddenly.

"What? Why?" Her request startled him.

"I forgot that the doctor gave me some antihistamines for a slight cold that I felt was coming on, and now I've drunk two glasses of wine, and I really don't think I should be driving anywhere because I'm already a little dizzy."

"Bones! Isn't that dangerous? I think that's dangerous. Isn't that a combination where you could stop breathing and die?"

She waved his concerns away with an unsteady hand.

"Not in these doses, I'll be fine, I just need to sleep it off."

"No. No way. We're going back to the hospital again."

"Oh come on, Booth! I'll be fine! Ask Sweets or Cam if you don't believe me!"

Frustrated, he grabbed her arm.

"Fine, come on, let's ask them. Hey SWEETS!"

Sweets nearly fell off his bar chair when he heard the shout. Before he could respond, Booth and Brennan had already reached him. Booth thrust Brennan's purse at Sweets.

"Hey Sweets, Bones here, she took some pills, and then she drank two glasses of wine, and now she, I don't know, needs her stomach pumped or something, or she's going to stop breathing, am I right?"

"He's just... being all... alpha male and... FBI agent on me. I'll be fine, I just need to... sleep it off." Brennan waved her hand weakly, while the other hand pushed her prescription bottle at him.

"Oh my God, sweetie, you sound terrible." Angela looked over at Sweets for confirmation. "Hey, is she going to be okay?"

"Dr. Brennan? How many of these did you take?"

"TWO! I can read the prescription, you know! And I'm not suici..suicidal, so I wouldn't be taking more than what I need...I just need to sleep this off. Tell him that, Sweets..."

"Dr. Brennan..."

"TELL HIM!" Brennan started to point towards Booth, but only managed to smack his face with her hand.

"Ouch... okay Sweets, what do you have for me?"

Sweets stared at the dosage on the bottle, and did some mental arithmetic. "She should be alright, the dosage was too low to be anything lethal. But she is going to wake up with the mother to end all hangovers tomorrow. Better put her to bed with a pitcher of water and two Advils."

"HA! See? Told you that I would be okay. Now I just need to call a cab..."

"Forget it, I'm sending you home. Angela," he looked over at her as he threw her Brennan's purse. "Could you take care of her car tonight? I'll fetch her to work tomorrow, so you can drive around in style tonight."

"Lucky me." Angela commented drily as she located Brennan's keys.

By this time, Brennan had her head in her hands, and she was a little unsteady on her feet.

"Booth?"

"Yeah."

"I don't feel so well."

"Yeah, well, next time, you shouldn't have so much to drink. Say bye, you guys."

"Bye Booth, happy birthday man." Hodgins saluted him with his beer mug.

"Goodnight Agent Booth. See you in the office." Sweets slapped Booth on the shoulder, which earned him a slight glare.

"Happy birthday, Seely." Cam gave him a hug and a kiss.

"Booth! C'mere," Angela engulfed him with her hug and personality. "Take her home and ravish her if she's sober... I'm sure she wouldn't mind giving you that kind of a birthday present." He pulled back from the hug to see her eyes sparkle with mirth. "Oh don't look at me like that, FBI man! Happy birthday!" And with a kiss, she pushed him towards his wayward charge.

"Goodnight guys, I'll... I'll see you bright and early tomorrow." Brennan grabbed Booth's arm for stability as she pushed off the bar table.

"Thanks for the party, guys... it wasn't really necessary, but I enjoyed it anyway. See you all soon." They left the bar, Booth half-supporting Brennan to the SUV.

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_A/N: Reviews are better than an endorphin high from a 10km run._


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